Video: Bocar Dieng on reporting Senegal's elections

Last week's unexpected coup d'etat in Mali
somewhat overshadowed, in the international news cycle, a relatively peaceful
transition of power in the neighboring democracy of Senegal. In a second-round
vote, opposition leader Macky Sall on Sunday defeated his former mentor,
85-year-old incumbent President Abdoulaye Wade; and while European Union
observers deplored some irregularities, they largely praised the election
and the Senegalese news media for a "positive role" in informing voters.

In a new video, journalist Bocar Dieng, a reporter for
independent media group Walfadjri
in Fatick, east of the capital Dakar, details an attack he endured by Wade
supporters for his coverage of the first round of voting February 26. He also
expresses hope for justice under a new government; the Wade administration politicized
a number of judicial cases brought by journalists against officials, security
forces, or members of the ruling PDS party. And Dieng recounts his commitment to
keeping Senegalese informed, to practicing journalism as a "counter-power"
imperative for maintaining democracy.

The interview was recorded on March 5 in Dakar, in the
period between the first and second round of the election. The directors of
photography were Ben Herson and Elias Aba Milki, who was also the editor. The
interview was conducted by Samiha Rahman.

Dieng was the first reporter to relay widespread accounts
suggesting that out-of-towners had been transported into town to vote in the
February 26 first round. He interviewed residents and polling station
employees, some of whom claimed to have identified individuals of Haitian
nationality attempting to stand in line to vote. In a live broadcast to
Walf TV around 4 o'clock that afternoon, Dieng said he was working on verifying
unconfirmed reports of Haitian nationals attempting to vote. (More than
150 Haitian university students arrived in Senegal on government
scholarships in October 2010 at the invitation
of Wade, who called his administration's move a gesture of solidarity
following the 2009 earthquake that tore apart the island nation, according
to news reports.)

A half hour later, Sitor N'dour, director of a university
known by its French acronym COUD and
the leader of a local pro-Wade group, stormed Dieng's home with six other men
and confronted him for mentioning the reports of Haitians voting. The ensuing
assault cost him a swollen eye, a broken computer and furniture. A YouTube video viewed nearly 6,000
times shows a Walf TV interview of Dieng shortly after the attack,
his eye swollen, finger bleeding and a broken computer and overturned furniture
in the background. N'dour did not deny storming Dieng's home but denied
participating in the assault. "[Dieng] was not assaulted in front of me,"
N'dour later told the state-run Senegalese press agency APS.

Dieng has filed a complaint and police have taken statements
from witnesses and some of the men involved, he told CPJ. In addition to justice
for his assault, Dieng is hoping for progress on a proposed amendment to the press code that would decriminalize defamation and press
offenses, but has been stalled in the National Assembly since last year because
of political resistance from Wade and members of his party.

Wade's bid for a thirm term in office sparked nationwide protests
in which at least six people were killed and several journalists
threatened or injured. Throughout the campaign, opposition parties and Wade supporters traded accusations of election
irregularities, including attempted ballot stuffing, according to news reports.
The accusations were bolstered by some arrests; eyewitness accounts from election monitors deployed by
civil society groups; reports published in the local press; and crowdsourcing platforms such as Samabaat. After the
run-off, however, Wade conceded
defeat -- a victory for democracy and perhaps, in time, for Senegalese press
freedom.

Mohamed Keita is advocacy coordinator for CPJ's Africa Program. Keita has written about independent journalism and development in sub-Saharan Africa for publications including The New York Times and Africa Review, and has appeared on NPR, the BBC, Al-Jazeera, and Radio France Internationale. Keita has also given presentations on press freedom at the World Bank, U.S. State Department, and universities. Follow him on Twitter: @africamedia_CPJ.